Page 1097…
Happy Monday!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
We return to Camelot this week.
And for those of you who didn’t see…we have some new designs of the characters for the movie up on Facebook…
Check it out…
Scott
Happy Monday!
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
We return to Camelot this week.
And for those of you who didn’t see…we have some new designs of the characters for the movie up on Facebook…
Check it out…
Scott
hehe I will have to look later 😀 love the comic hehe
Nick has certainly read the book on motivation. He tries logic, dangles the carrot of his cooperation, and even appears to plead.
What Nick doesn’t realize is that he presumed to place his own opinion in the place of this mysterious “we”, presumably the whole of Dreamland. Also, he may have implied that he is the ruler of the Nightmare Realm.
You are such a pompous liar, Nicodemus!
Keep WHAT?!?!?! from escalating, apart from Nic’s growing rage. Nic is expecting Arthur to do as he’s told just because Nic says so, and last time I looked Nic’s not the one in charge…well not yet anyway .
My kids don’t buy that sort of argument when i’ve tried it on them – the “do as i say because I’m your father” usually results in
1/ being ignored and them continuing with their activities or
2/ a response of “well why” and if a detailed explanation is not readily forthcoming then….see 1/
3/ me banging my head against a brick wall hoping that concussion can wipe out memories
I see an appeal to logic (with a veiled disdain “we tolerate”), personal accusation, a veiled threat of blackmail (“I may be able to…”) and apparent pleading… on all four, no less! Sounds like too little, too late, for me… I think Nick’s exposed too many of his cards already, for Arthur to begin trusting him now…
I can’t wait to see what Arthur does with this. You get the feeling from his expression in the second panel that he has an inkling of what Nicodemus’ game is. Remember also that Merlin directly warned him that Nic’s first loyalty is to Dreamland and that he may do something rather rash if he feels like Arthur is threatening it. Merlin is, apparnetly, a clever fellow.
O.o he’s begging! wow!
I really like all the designs. And the fairies are sooo awesome!!!!! Fav Nast are 5, 8, 4, but the best is the one where you talk about her cape. And the one of alex without other alex’s is the most awesomerific! Hmm, each fairy could be the start of new and diff fairy characters. #1 is most like the kiwi we all know, Wow, they’re all so good!
Nic has an apparent fear of what is to come in the future. What could happen, if adults in dreamland communicate with adults on earth. HOly drat, he is soooo wetting his pants. Maybe this crosses some of his plans?
Uh, I was just wondering (this page is awesome, btw) are there any updates on casting? Still live action? cos’ the art newly posted on Facebook seems to lean towards 3d.
Nicodemus: “Please Arthur…I beg of you, don’t want to be a raid instance! And the Chuck Norris jokes will be unending!”
Hm. It’s actually a little hard to tell if Nicky is serious here (in the sense of actually wanting to dissuade Arthur because he doesn’t WANT to act against the King). I suppose he COULD be. But my gut says he’s more worried because he had plans that weren’t as mature as they should be, and Arthur’s going to force him to move ahead a lot earlier now.
Too many Grownups in Dreamland… I wonder what the real issue would be. There are SO many possibilities…
Nick’s making a good argument. All you have to do is look at the news headlines every day to see what humans are capable of doing. Now imagine Dreamland flooded with adult humans, all with the powers Alex is learning to tap, and no way for the locals to restrain their worst impulses. Worst case scenario, it’d be like an invasion of Superman gone bad multiplied by X numbers of humans…
Of course, from what we’ve seen, you have to wonder what the rest of Nick’s agenda includes. There’s more going on than he’s telling Arthur.
Last panel. Nic’s “hands” – they look totally out of proportions to me. – Why does Nic have to have 5 fingers? – Don’t even remember ever seeing his hands before ….
/shrug
Yep — and I didn’t see the crowd in the other room freaking out about Arthur’s big announcement, either.
As far as I know, most lizards have five fingers. He’s a dragon though, so maybe that logic doesn’t fly.
They look fine to me on Nic, though. We’ve seen his hands in all the previous pages this week. I suspect you’re just not used to seeing his hands flat from this angle — from the side, the breadth of his palms is less obvious.
And a prior example:
http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/chapter-15/page-1034/
The do appear to be a tad huge.
but the way he looking that they appear we never really seen him fully bodied with looking downside angle of his body on the ground so they may be large
i appreciated the preview of the designs you received – thank you – and thanks for giving your readers the chance to comment on those designs. the only designs which i liked at all were stanley lau’s versions of alex and nastajia. i’m guessing i’d be partial to stanley lau’s other work as well. the other designs are not nearly as good as what you already have now, and are certainly not “updated” whatsoever. well, i kind of liked ‘feral’ felicity, but since the other facebook users did not, i may be in the minority on that one…she seemed more like a character who’d survived the streets than the felicity in the comic. also, though i strongly disliked the other nastajia designs, they brought up an issue, perhaps she could look slightly more ‘elven’ – if lau can’t help with that, sarah ellerton can. among your current characters, the only one whose design strikes me as slightly off to begin with is kiwi – her lips are too big, her eyebrows don’t match her hair color at all (a fairy who bleaches her hair? i don’t think so – it’s hard not to notice this glaring error) and her outfit is wrong, color-blind wrong and unnatural for a fairy. aside from kiwi, whose personality almost makes up for her design flaws, i think the characters are really amazing as they are and don’t need updating. don’t like her name either, to be honest, though i love kiwi fruit.
i’d ask nicole chartrand to review your characters and see if they could come up with new designs – or better yet, slightly improve the designs you have, as that may be more useful. nicole is far more creative than any of the artists you used, including lau, much as i liked his work. have you ever taken a peek at feywinds? http://kitsune.rydia.net/index.html – it’s not my favorite fantasy webcomic, but it’s pretty high up there, and moreover, she comes up with new character designs like other people drink coffee – each one designed well and with incredible attention to detail. i think she does it for gaming purposes, but if you check out her gallery, you’ll see what i mean.
sorry, to see her many character designs you have to check out her Deviant Art gallery, I’ve been watching them over time, in jaw-dropping awe, as vote incentives: http://lelenia.deviantart.com/
Nick is such an idiot,really
well said.
They are pretty big to begin with. http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/the-dreamland-chronicles/page-840%e2%80%a6/
lol
We’ve moved to animated.
Beautiful work indeed.
Thank you!
So… he’s paralleling the use of ‘The American People’ by politicians?
Hmmm… where did my comment go? I was number 4, I think?
You posted in the raising funds for the Nashville victims thread.
What pants?
Nic’s argument might hold water if Arthur were proposing that any humans would be able to enter dreamland. The process described by the centaurs does not really provide that scenario. If I understand dreamquesting and/or visionquesting, a person’s body must go through a fair amount of stress and discomfort to achieve it. Most of the people who would exploit dreamland wouldn’t have the patience to undergo the procedure to even make it into that world. Nic may or may not know this, but in any event, he seems to protest a bit too much without even asking or pursuing any more information about Arthur’s plans. His very ‘knee jerk’ reactions on the subject make for the suggestion of some ‘hidden agenda’.
I wouldn’t trust him…
“Keep WHAT?!?!?! from escalating, apart from Nic’s growing rage. Nic is expecting Arthur to do as he’s told just because Nic says so, and last time I looked Nic’s not the one in charge…well not yet anyway. My kids don’t buy that sort of argument when i’ve tried it on them”
Keep the scenario of future conflict with the nightmare realm, and an open split between Arthur and his dragon adviser, from escalating. That is to say, avoid the twin threats of civil and external war.
Once children are fully grown and independent, as the key players of Dreamland are, this becomes an argument that one ignores at one’s peril. More than one family has been utterly fractured by choosing to escalate anyway after a threat like this is delivered. The aftermath is generally very sad to see.
Arthur is being given a choice here: peace and the abandonment of his designs, or pursuit of those designs and likely war.
Neither choice is ideal. Welcome to the reality of rulership.
“Tolerate”?
Yup… line was crossed back that way somewhere…
At first, I stated to agree with Nick, but then I remembered that not all humans are evil (duh). Also, RG holds a valid point, It wouldn’t be anybody, but only whom Aurthur chooses.
Checked it out..Hmmm…..[scratching chin] hmmm…hmmmmm.. Not too fond of it. Stanley Lau comes closest… And i am not too fond of Nicole here… I somehow cannot connect those scribbles to the clean visuals of Your renders..sorry..
Translation of Nicodemus’ argument into plain language: “Do what I want and quit your plans, or I will get violent.”
DOH! X-P
I miss the forum… no such mistakes there!
*REPOST*
Interesting indeed. It looks to me that we are getting a detailed background where we see that Nicodemus perhaps did what he did because he HAD to, in order to save Dreamland?
And he has stopped at nothing to achieve that goal.
(For historical comparisons, maybe General Jaruszelski of Poland can be referred to here? Fellow history fans and experts, your take on this please? (If what he says is true) )
The result may not have been the best, but just like Odysseus who had to navigate between Schylla and Charybdis – going too close to one of them would have destroyed the entire ship and killed everyone, going closer to the other side took a huge toll of men – ie Nic may have had to agree to some demands from the Nightmare Realm, such as allowing NMR guards in Astoria, in exchange for keeping the peace – it may have been the only possible option, regardless how costful.
CGI animated or traditional cel animated?
“Humans are Bastards! Except for you… This could get bad!” — Great Job, Nic, I think you’ve convinced him.
The comparison to Jaruszelski is apt but not for the reasons you seem to be using, Bezman. Jaruszelski implemented brutal measures under the excuse of saving Poland from invasion but subsequent reviews of Soviet files indicates that the USSR had no intention of invading Poland and it is much more likely that Jaruszelski was instituting a crackdown to consolidate his own power. Likewise, Nic may be using the excuse of saving Dreamland, citing some terrible threat, to take extreme measure to consolidate his power. If you wanted to, you could widen the comparison to Hitler as well whose Nazi party seized power under the false pretense that the communists had set fire to the Reichstag.
… we aren’t?
I mean yes, yes, of course we aren’t ALL evil. *shifty look* *slinks away*
Fascinating, Scott! What about voice talents – got that underway? Keep us posted, and as always, best wishes to you, your family, and your SPECTACULAR comic!!
Awwww, he’s begging? He’s begging! How could you say no to that, Arthur? Q_Q I feel for Nic, I really do…
CGI of course.
🙂
Delphshadow’s assessment of Gen. Jaruzelski is quite correct.
Which is why the analogy breaks down. Jaruzelski was already the ruler of a dictatorship. Nicodemus is implicitly threatening secession and insurgency, in conjunction with external war. A scenario where the sides will be more or less evenly matched, unless he can take Arthur out of the picture entirely. Nic is presenting all this as consequences not of his doing, of course. That’s probably partly true, but we all suspect that it’s not entirely true.
I can think of few modern parallels to this alignment. Maybe some of the modern-day events in South America.
With 20/20 hindsight, it appears that whatever was done in Dreamland left neither side with the quite outcome it wanted. Lots more humans in Dreamland, but Nicodemus in charge and Arthur gone. The dragon wins, but it’s an unstable victory. He tries to consolidate it and fix that over time, but… enter Alex…
Nee-keee! Nee-keee!
*pompom waves*
I wonder what Merlin thinks of Nics ‘request’.
I am…intrigued by this. If Nic is being truthful here (and it seems he is, since what he’s saying is still quite in character for him), then we’re seeing what amounts to his Start of Darkness (if I can steal a term from another popular webcomic). I can’t wait to read more.
nick beg? that does not seem like nick would never do that. and like he is any better, he is just as greedy and evil.
I have stated Nic’s placement before
Am I gullible or something? I want to believe what Nico is saying…It sounds reasonable…but…In the face of what we’ve already seen…
I for one welcome our new dragon overlord.